The Daily Audio Bible
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22 Thus saith the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Juda, and there thou shalt speak this word,
2 And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Juda, that sittest upon the throne of David: thou and thy servants, and thy people, who enter in by these gates.
3 Thus saith the Lord: Execute judgement and justice, and deliver him that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor: and afflict not the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, nor oppress them unjustly: and shed not innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you will do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house, kings of the race of David sitting upon his throne, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants, and their people.
5 But if you will not hearken to these words: I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
6 For thus saith the Lord to the house of the king of Juda: Thou art to me Galaad the head of Libanus: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities not habitable.
7 And I will prepare against thee the destroyer and his weapons: and they shall cut down thy chosen cedars, and shall cast them headlong into the fire.
8 And many nations shall pass by this city: and they shall say every man to his neighbour: Why hath the Lord done so to this great city?
9 And they shall answer: Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and have adored strange gods, and served them.
10 Weep not for him that is dead, nor bemoan him with your tears: lament him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11 For thus saith the Lord to Sellum the son of Josias the king of Juda, who reigned instead of his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall return hither no more:
12 But in the place, to which I have removed him, there shall he die, and he shall not see this land any more.
13 Woe to him that buildeth up his house by injustice, and his chambers not in judgement: that will oppress his friend without cause, and will not pay him his wages.
14 Who saith: I will build me a wide house and large chambers: who openeth to himself windows, and maketh roofs of cedar, and painteth them with vermilion.
15 Shalt thou reign, because thou comparest thyself to the cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and it was then well with him?
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy for his own good: was it not therefore because he knew me, saith the Lord?
17 But thy eyes and thy heart are set upon covetousness, and upon shedding innocent blood, and upon oppression, and running after evil works.
18 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda: They shall not mourn for him, Alas, my brother, and Alas, sister: they shall not lament for him, Alas, my Lord, or, Alas, the noble one.
19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Libanus, and cry: and lift up thy voice in Basan, and cry to them that pass by, for all thy lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke to thee in thy properity: and thou saidst: I will not hear: this hath been thy way from thy youth, because thou hast not heard my voice.
22 The wind shall feed all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: and then shalt thou be confounded, and ashamed of all thy wickedness.
23 Thou that sittest in Libanus, and makest thy nest in the cedars, how hast thou mourned when sorrows came upon thee, as the pains of a woman in labour?
24 As I live, saith the Lord, if Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda were a ring on my right hand, I would pluck him thence.
25 And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 And I will send thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a strange country, in which you were not born, and there you shall die:
27 And they shall not return into the land, whereunto they lift up their mind to return thither.
28 Is this man Jechonias an earthen and a broken vessel? is he a vessel wherein there is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
30 Thus saith the Lord: Write this man barren, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for there shall not be a man of his seed that shall sit upon the throne of David, and have power any more in Juda.
23 Woe to the pastors, that destroy and tear the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord.
2 Therefore thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to the pastors that feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold I will visit upon you for the evil of your doings, saith the Lord.
3 And I will gather together the remnant of my flock, out of all the lands into which I have cast them out: and I will make them return to their own fields, and they shall increase and be multiplied.
4 And I will set up pastors over them, and they shall feed them: they shall fear no more, and they shall not be dismayed: and none shall be wanting of their number, saith the Lord.
5 Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise, and shall execute judgement and justice in the earth.
6 In those days shall Juda be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently: and this is the name that they shall call him: the Lord our just one.
7 Therefore behold the days to come, saith the Lord, and they shall say no more: The Lord liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt:
8 But the Lord liveth, who hath brought out, and brought hither the seed of the house of Israel from the land of the north, and out of all the lands, to which I had cast them forth: and they shall dwell in their own land.
9 To the prophets: My heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble: I am become as a drunken man, and as a man full of wine, at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of his holy words.
10 Because the land is full of adulterers, because the land hath mourned by reason of cursing, the fields of the desert are dried up: and their course is become evil, and their strength unlike.
11 For the prophet and the priest are defiled: and in my house I have found their wickedness, saith the Lord.
12 Therefore their way shall be as a slippery way in the dark: for they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evils upon them, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.
13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied in Baal, and deceived my people Israel.
14 And I have seen the likeness of adulterers, and the way of lying in the prophets of Jerusalem: and they strengthened the hands of the wicked, that no man should return from his evil doings: they are all become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrha.
15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts to the prophets: Behold I will feed them with wormwood, and will give them gall to drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem corruption has gone forth into all the land.
16 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy to you, and deceive you: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.
17 They say to them that blaspheme me: The Lord hath said: You shall have peace: and to every one that walketh in the perverseness of his own heart, they have said: No evil shall come upon you.
18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath seen and heard his word? Who hath considered his word and heard it?
19 Behold the whirlwind of the Lord's indignation shall come forth, and a tempest shall break out and come upon the head of the wicked.
20 The wrath of the Lord shall not return till he execute it, and till he accomplish the thought of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand his counsel.
1 Paul, and Sylvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Grace unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you towards each other, aboundeth:
4 So that we ourselves also glory in you in the churches of God, for your patience and faith, and in all your persecutions and tribulations, which you endure,
5 For an example of the just judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which also you suffer.
6 Seeing it is a just thing with God to repay tribulation to them that trouble you:
7 And to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with the angels of his power:
8 In a flame of fire, giving vengeance to them who know not God, and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 Who shall suffer eternal punishment in destruction, from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his power:
10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be made wonderful in all them who have believed; because our testimony was believed upon you in that day.
11 Wherefore also we pray always for you; that our God would make you worthy of his vocation, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith in power;
12 That the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
83 Unto the end, for the winepresses, a psalm for the sons of Core.
2 How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of host!
3 My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.
4 For the sparrow hath found herself a house, and the turtle a nest for herself where she may lay her young ones: Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.
5 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: they shall praise thee for ever and ever.
6 Blessed is the man whose help is from thee: in his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps,
7 In the vale of tears, in the place which be hath set.
8 For the lawgiver shall give a blessing, they shall go from virtue to virtue: the God of gods shall be seen in Sion.
9 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob.
10 Behold, O God our protector: and look on the face of thy Christ.
11 For better is one day in thy courts above thousands. I have chosen to be an abject in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners.
12 For God loveth mercy and truth: the Lord will give grace and glory.
13 He will not deprive of good things them that walk in innocence: O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
11 To speak a word in due time, is like apples of gold on beds of silver.
12 As an earring of gold and a bright pearl, so is he that reproveth the wise, and the obedient ear.
13 As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to him that sent him, for he refresheth his soul.
14 As clouds, and wind, when no rain followeth, so is the man that boasteth, and doth not fulfill his promises.
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